Author Note: So this one was not only requested on tumblr but it was something I was already planning on writing so yay it's done! I am using some let's call them rumors and theories for part of the story from Girl Meets Triangle, because it partially inspired the latter half of this.
Ski Lodge
Riley blocks out the cold air as they step off the bus, she's cautious as she looks for ice to not slip, it would be her sort of luck to have that happen. She makes it into the lodge without injury and so do all her friends. They've all gotten their room assignments, she's with Maya and Smackle so that will be a fun little slumber party tonight and tomorrow. The boys are all together so they'll do whatever it is they would do.
"I am so ready to hit the slopes." Maya announces with confidence.
"You are so lucky you've skied before." Riley looks at the map, wondering how badly everyone will tease her the super klutz for going down the bunny trail.
Maya shrugged, "It only happened because my Mom dated a guy who was trying to impress her."
"So what runs are you girls going to do?" Lucas has joined them, standing closer to Riley then to Maya.
Riley can feel the butterflies in her stomach, she can smell his cologne he wears and it makes her a bit dizzy, "Um, I'm doing the bunny trail with a lesson I think."
"Let me teach you." Lucas jumps at the chance, "I've gone skiing a ton on Spring Break and stuff, and I don't mind going down the bunny trail."
"Are you sure?" Riley bites her lip, "I mean I would hate to keep you from skiing with the guys."
"It's fine, really, I would hate for you to get flustered with some cranky ski teacher anyways. I can teach you to pizza and French fry just as well as they could."
Maya smiles as she watches them, noticing the way Lucas looks at Riley, how had she missed that all this time? "Riley, go with Lucas. I'm sure he can help you out."
"Thanks Maya." Lucas smiles brightly, "So You and Me?"
"Me and You" Riley feels like she's going to throw up, but in a good way.
"Riley?" Lucas stood at the top of the bunny hill, his stomach in knots as he turned his head to look at her, ignoring the hill in front of him. "Are you ready?"
"I think so."
Lucas had gone over the basics with her, and now they were going to try it out. There was just one thing he had left out he actually was really bad at skiing. He knew the fundamentals he'd made it through a few runs over the years when his family would go to Colorado for Spring Break, but he actually hated it.
He pushed off, and Riley was behind him. He was doing okay but he did something, he didn't know what but next thing he knew he was tumbling into the snow and he was bringing Riley down with him.
His back was crushed against the wet snow, Riley on top of him; snow in her hair, her face red from the wind and cold. "Riley . . ."
"Lucas . . ."
"I hate skiing I'm not good at it." He confessed, not moving, enjoying the feel of her body on top of his.
Riley nodded, "I see that, you know though that no one is going to believe that Lucas Friar Star Athlete is the one that took out the super klutz on the bunny hill, right?"
"I'm sorry, are you hurt?" Lucas bit his lip worried he'd broken her, her father would kill him.
Riley tried to push herself up and collapsed on him when her left ankle gave out, "Ow, ow, ow." She tried to breathe as she stood up.
Lucas felt like an idiot, he should've told her. "Riley I am so sorry you got hurt. Listen I'll carry you back to the lodge."
"Lucas you don't have to do that." She watched as he winced in pain as he put weight on his wrist. "Are you okay?"
"I think I sprained my wrist, but I can at least still walk." He bent down to remove his skis and then hers. He tried to think for a moment, he knew he could carry Riley she was as light as a feather, it was just balancing the skis, thankfully they weren't that far from the lodge.
"You can't carry me Lucas, I can hop on down if I have to. Your wrist is hurt you shouldn't be carrying anything."
"Riley, you can't hop down a mountain." He found a strap and wrapped it around the four skis and polls. "You hold these, and I'll hold you. It'll be faster this way Riles, I promise."
She bit her lip, "Are you sure you can do this with your wrist, what if we make the injury worse?"
"You're worth it." He watched as she clutched the equipment in her arms nervously before he picked her up, cradling her in his arms as he started down.
Riley felt her heart racing being this close to him, in his embrace like this, had he really said she was worth it? If they were just friends, why was is so damn hard for her to not fall more in love with him?
Riley sat on the couch in the lounge her ankle protected by an Aircast, as Lucas sat next to her his wrist wrapped in an ace bandage. Both had simple sprains, they were done skiing for now, stuck inside by the fireplace while everyone else was out dashing through the snow.
Maya, Farkle, Zay and Smackle came rushing in and right towards them.
"We heard you got hurt." Maya sat next to Riley.
Farkle looked at them, "What happened, tree?"
"Riley, did you trip?" Zay shook his head.
"It's not Riley's fault." Lucas sighed, "I fell and took her out with me in the tumble."
"That is highly unlikely." Smackle looked to them, "But not impossible."
Riley sighed, "I told you they wouldn't believe you."
"Wait, Lucas really did fall first and take you out?" Zay looked to his friend confused.
"I hate skiing I'm not that great at it, in fact I'm not good at all." Lucas sighed, "And not only did I injure myself, but I injured Riley."
"So you guys are what stuck in here the rest of the weekend?" Farkle studied them, figuring it would be a good chance for them to talk.
"Yeah, we are. At least you guys can hang out with us at night." Riley smiled, "Look at this super cool old fireplace, that will be fun to hang out around."
Maya smiled, "Yeah, it sure would. I think we're going to get changed, but we'll be down in a little bit and we can all go to dinner, sound good?"
"Yeah, sounds great." Riley breathed as their friends left them, "So, think they have any board games we could play?"
"Probably," Lucas got off the couch and went over to the shelf, "Family game, Friends game, twister, the couples game."
Riley cringed, "You pick."
"Maybe we can find something else later, maybe Farkle has something on his iPad we could all play."
"Good idea." She had been so afraid he would pick the couples game, that was the last thing they needed.
Cory came into the lodge shaking his head, "At least you made it onto a pair of skis, when I went skiing in high school I slipped on the ice getting off the bus and sprained my ankle."
"Did you also strike the fancy of some girl who wrote you a letter that broke you and Mom up?"
"I'm not proud of that." Cory looked to Lucas, "You really carried her and the skis back even with your own injury?"
"Yes Sir, I wasn't going to let her hop down the mountain."
Cory just nodded, "Dinner in fifteen minutes you guys, I'll see you in there."
Lucas sat next to Riley again, "Your parents broke up at one point?"
"Yeah, I haven't gotten the whole story, its part of why I've never gone skiing before. This girl that worked at the resort liked Dad I guess and it threatened Mom. I found out when they opened their time capsule. Mom put the letter that girl wrote him into it."
"Really?"
"Yeah, something about she wanted to be with him when he opened it so it wasn't a threat anymore." Riley shrugged, "Hey Lucas?"
"Yeah?"
"Could I lean on you a bit as we go towards the dining room?"
"Anytime" He helped her up off the couch, enjoying the feel of her close to him as he guided her towards the dining room.
The group of friends sat around the fireplace, it was circular, something out of Mad Men or a very old ski lodge from the 1950s or 1960s. Maya sat next to Zay, Farkle and Smackle were glued to each other, leaving the injured duo of Riley and Lucas sitting together.
"So, what did you two talk about while you were stuck here this afternoon?" Maya watched them, trying to figure out why they were still just friends even though it was beyond obvious that they liked each other, wanted to be together.
"Nothing really" Riley looked to Lucas, "I mean I kept telling him no one would believe he took out the super klutz."
"But I did, it was my fault." He couldn't help but smile at her.
"So you guys didn't talk about your relationship?" Maya looked to Riley, remembering their fight a few weeks ago.
"Maya, Lucas and I are friends that's what we decided a while ago." Riley warned her friend, afraid of where this was going, things were finally starting to calm down. Maya was acting like Maya again, things were better with Farkle.
Maya stood up walking over to her friend, "Why then did you call Lucas your boyfriend the other week."
"Maya" Riley's jaw dropped as she watched her friend walk over to Zay.
"Hey Zay, want to get some hot chocolate?"
"Yeah, I'm down." He smiled as she held out her hand for him. "See ya."
"Smackle, let's go see what constellations we can see." Farkle didn't wait for a response; he just pulled his girlfriend away from his friends.
Lucas watched Riley; he could see her thinking "You called me your boyfriend?"
"It slipped out." God she wished she could get up and walk away from him, damn this sprained ankle.
"When" Could this mean what he hoped it meant?
Riley looked down at her hands, afraid to look at Lucas, "During a fight with Maya. It was weeks ago, it's not important."
"Riley it is important." Lucas reached over, her chin in his fingers, trying to get her to look at him.
"Lucas, it was a slip of the tongue. You made your choice for us to be friends that's what we are."
"What if that's not what I think we are?"
Riley let her eyes lock on his, "What?"
Lucas scooched closer, "What if I don't think we're just friends, what if I told you that while I picked friendship last spring that I also made a choice a few weeks ago?"
Riley stares at him, slowly letting the words sink in, "What choice?" her stomach a twist of knots and butterflies. She could smell his cologne mixed with the scent of the fire.
"It was never between you and Maya." He smiled hoping to God she was getting what he was saying.
"Then what was it?" Riley wasn't sure she could go through the heartbreak of losing him.
"I told you I was worth it, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did." She couldn't help but smile at the memory of her begging to know if he was worth it as she pushed him up against the car.
Lucas reached up with his good hand, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear, "You are worth waiting for Riley. I chose to wait for you, for you to be ready for us."
Riley was silent.
"Riley, are you worth it?"
"Yes." She released as she searched his eyes for some sign that this was a dream and she was about to wake up.
Her hand covered his as it still hovered near her ear, his fingers dancing with her hair. "Lucas . . ."
"Yes."
"I'm ready, I've been ready."
"You are?" he fights his growing smile.
Riley nods feeling his hands on the side of her face, fingers starting to rake her hair.
Lucas was lost in her brown eyes as they reflected the golden glow of the fire, this is right, this is it.
Riley's hand covered his just as he leans in close. His lips on hers . . . finally.
Lucas had dreamed of this moment, he'd been so close far too many times, but now it was real, it was true. It was soft, slow, but also electrifying at the same time.
Riley pulled away to catch her breath, "Wow."
"Wow." He smiled, his fingers brushing her hair away from her eyes.
"Your moment . . ."
"Our moment" He corrected.
"I told you this would work." Maya looked over at Zay as they watched from the landing above.
"Damn, I can't believe that finally happened." He confessed as he watched his friends.
"So what happens now?" Farkle looked to Maya and Zay before looking to his own girlfriend.
"I hope this means our third wheel is finally over me." Smackle looked to her friends.
Maya shook her head, "Oh look they're holding hands."
"What are you guys watching?" Cory came up behind them.
"Lucas just had his moment." Maya explained, watching her teacher shrug and nod for a second before, she saw her best friend's father take over.
"Moment?"
"Hambone, it's okay." Farkle and Zay both rose, turning Cory around, "You know, in every fathers life there is a point where you have to let your daughter go."
"You like Lucas you've given him your blessing." Zay reminded his teacher even though he hadn't been there.
"Are you sure they're okay?" Cory tried to look back as the boys led him down the hall.
"They're fine they're probably the most fine they've been since Texas." Farkle explained.
Cory sighed, "Curfew, ten minutes."
"I'll let them know Matthews!" Maya called out, looking down on her friends, finally feeling like things were finally right.
